SCARS STILL VISIBLE IN U.S., MIDDLE EAST

special report | the Iraq War: ten years later

An opening

In 2006, a confluence of factors finally reached a tipping point, resulting in the Sunni Awakening. It wasn’t obvious at first, since violence was surging, albeit in a shrinking area of enemy-controlled territory.

But tribal leaders in Anbar had realized they were losing control of the insurgency to Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi. His al-Qaeda in Iraq organization was terrorizing them with mass bombings, beheadings, assassinations and a fanatical brand of Islam alien to the area.

In Anbar, Marines and soldiers under their command reached out to the tribes. They began providing better security through small combat outposts spread throughout Ramadi. Tribal leaders came to see the Americans as the lesser of two evils. They stopped attacking them and sent their sons to join the police and army.

Within a year, violence dropped to the point where the mayor of Ramadi held a 5K race through streets once plagued by daily firefights and bombings.

The change was stark when Sgt. Maj. Neil O’Connell returned to Anbar for a second yearlong tour in 2008. The January 2009 provincial elections were virtually violence-free across Iraq. “I drove that province with my commanding general and we witnessed firsthand, free, open elections in hotbeds such as Fallujah, Ramadi, Al Qa’im,” said O’Connell, now retired. One of the most remarkable aspects: “The Iraqis provided all the security.”

The success of the Marines in Anbar predated the surge of extra troops and comprehensive population-centered counterinsurgency strategy Gen. David Petraeus applied in Iraq in spring 2007.

The fact that Marine-led forces in Anbar were well on their way to defeating insurgents in the once-violent west by that time was “the best-kept secret of the Iraq War,” according to a richly detailed book released this month by the Naval Institute Press: “The Marines Take Anbar: The Four-Year Fight Against al-Qaeda,” by Richard H. Shultz Jr., director of the International Security Studies Program at Tufts University.

Future wars

Their hard-wrought knowledge later informed their fight in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. It was also written into military doctrine and training.

The Iraq War “matured the force in terms of our capability, outlook and education. Now the $64,000 question is — what’s the next war going to look like? Everybody gets that wrong. Nobody can see the future,” said McCoy.

As the Marine Corps demonstrated in Iraq, “It’s not like the only tool we have is a hammer. We have a whole tool bag.”